Ben Hudson Kavanaugh, Jr., 82, passed away on Tuesday, October 5, 2021, at Huntsville Hospital. Born in Winona, MS on September 14, 1939, Ben attended the University of Mississippi before transferring and graduating from Mississippi State University with a B.S. degree in electrical engineering. He was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.
Upon graduation in 1963, he was brought to Huntsville, AL by Brown Engineering Co. to work on software used in NASA’s Apollo missions. After Teledyne bought Brown Engineering in 1967, he followed their mainframe to the newly created General Computer Services, Inc (GCS). While at GCS, he wrote their first version of the payroll processing software for the mainframe, which is still in use today. GCS was housed in the former HIC (Huntsville Industrial Complex) building when it was destroyed by fire in February 1980. Ben and his coworkers saved duplicates of the company’s business records and products in their homes and were able to conduct business from the kitchen tables of many to keep the company going.
GCS merged with Dyatron Corp, which later sold its payroll software division to McCormack & Dodge (M&D) around 1980. In 1982, The New York Times called M&D “one of the nation’s top three financial software concerns.”
While at M&D, one fun project was for Coca-Cola’s 100th anniversary celebration in 1986, which brought company executives from all over the world to Atlanta. Ben modified the program to print commemorative bonus checks for these executives that displayed each recipient’s photograph, a novel idea at the time. In June 1990, M&D merged with its archrival, Management Science America (MSA), under the newly formed Dun & Bradstreet Software (DBS). In 1996, Geac Computer Corporation bought DBS, where he worked until his retirement in 2000.
In 1993, former employees of DBS, who had a related consulting firm, copied software he designed and sold it as their own product. Ben and his coworkers still had the original source code and documentation going back to the GCS days proving that the programs were DBS’s, and later Geac’s, under copyright law. In 2002, this was affirmed on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals, 3rd Circuit (DBS & Geac v Grace Consulting, 307 F.3d 197 (2002)). This court case set an important standard used in hundreds of later intellectual property copyright cases, such as Oracle v Google.
Starting in his M&D days, Ben traveled extensively to customize his payroll software for corporations and governments. Although his business travels took him to Alaska, England, and many points in between, during his children’s school years, he would phone home on Tuesday and Thursday evenings to stay in contact with his family.
Ben was an avid reader and amateur genealogist. He was assisted by his daughter in compiling the information he gathered from genealogical libraries during his travels. He took his family to Ferns, Ireland on three occasions for international Kavanaugh family gatherings.
He was an ardent Mississippi State football fan and a keen Manchester United supporter. During his last months, spent at Whitesburg Gardens, he followed a shortened form of cricket (T20) in conversations with his son. He was a member of First United Methodist Church and a former member of Historic Huntsville Foundation, the Clan Campbell Society, National Speleological Society, the Tennessee Valley Scottish Society, and the Clann Cháomhánách Society of Ireland. Since early childhood, Ben had macular degeneration, but did not allow his visual impairment to stop him from doing what he needed and wanted to do.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Ben Hudson Kavanaugh, Sr., and Mary Patton Wilkins Kavanaugh. He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Marilyn, his son, Ben Hudson Kavanaugh III, his daughter, Margaret Ann Kavanaugh, his sister, Mary Kavanaugh Barrett, his nephew, James A. Barrett III (Klint) and Mac, his niece Patton Barrett Furman (Jamie) and Wilkins, and his cousins and their families Joan Kavanaugh LeSueur and Alec LeSueur; Susan Tenney Dowdy (Wayne), Dunbar Dowdy Watt (Alister), Elliott and Adam; Charles W. Dowdy (Bethany), Wayne, Beth, Jacks, and Wilkins; and Eloise Dowdy Cottrell (David), Arthur and John Rhodes; Weegie Tenney Harris, Eloise Harris May (Walter) and Ella, and Thomas Harris (Madelyn), Ryals, Thacker and Brown; and Merrill Tenney McKewen, Erin McKewen, and Augusta McKewen (Matt Seidel); John Schroeder (Virginia); Kathryn Schroeder Clark (Randy), Sarah and Drew; Elizabeth Brauchle Bella (Mike), Emily and Ayla; Helen Brauchle McCarthy (Michael), Ian and Ella; and Kathy Moore.
A memorial service will be held at a later date.
